Day 211
A post shared by K.A. Wiggins | �������� bookaholic (@kaie.space_author) on May 10, 2017 at 6:29pm PDT
Basically failed yesterday; going out for some fresh air turned out to be a brutally pointless exercise as the cottonwood poison is out in full force and I spent the rest of the day barely able to keep my eyes open. I know it���s not very artistic or environmentalist to hate trees and nature, but��� evil, evil stuff, it is.
I���d hoped to finish substantial rewrites yesterday and do a last quick once-through today, but stalled out again just heading into the climax. There are lots of ways to end it, most of them emotionally involving, but whether it���s that I haven���t quite hit on the right one, or the plot and story arc are too clouded by all the revisions, it doesn���t quite flow through the way I think it needs to. So I pulled back and filled out the plot worksheet, which I have worked through something like in the past, repeatedly, but since I change it every single time��� yeah. It helped, maybe? This time round I came up with a whole revenge angle, which is interesting, but also derails things and would make for a major revision that I don���t have time for. I think I need to cut some ideas, or at least get clear on what���s primary vs. subplot, but agh! I thought I was way past this point and nearly finished!
Interestingly, this time round I was able to see more clearly how Cole���s initial goals and damage (driven by the desire to be accepted/good enough/not a failure) do actually feed into the entire plot, despite a ���story goal��� of bringing down the Tower. Thus the revenge angle; I think it could be very emotionally honest for her to work out at some level that her motivation to save people (altruism) is really selfishness and essentially a desire for revenge or to take down the system she can���t ever win under. But then I have this whole thing about connection woven in, which is related but maybe too tangential? And all the threads don���t quite weave together for the ending. So she���s realized her motivation is selfish, despite looking good on the surface, but then she committed to it for more altruistic reasons? To the point of being self-sacrificing? But realizes things aren���t that simple, that self-sacrifice hurts others?
And then there���s the issue of rising stakes, where it���s as clear as it should be how things get worse as they go���
Saturday
Start Time: 11 am
Location: Abbotsford; home; chair
